Dr. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor and Chair of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He also is a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

As a leader in autism research and the inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, Dr. Offit is one of the public faces of the scientific consensus that vaccines have no association with autism.

Dr. Offit is a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation for Vaccine Research, a member of the Institute of Medicine and co-editor of the foremost vaccine text, “Vaccines.” He has received many prestigious awards, has published medical narratives, books and book chapters and more than 160 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety.

He will discuss the suggestion that vaccines may cause autism and the controversy surrounding it. He also will discuss how the media and current culture work against communicating science to the public.